Walking the Tightrope of Supply Chain Management — How to Add a Clinical Voice

Adding a clinical voice to the supply chain is a great way to bring a credible clinical balance to the financial pressures of cost containment. It will also provide an essential barometer on changing technology, techniques, and clinical care pathways. From my own experience, I’ve seen that it must be done thoughtfully if the partnership is really going to be beneficial. In this article, I’ll outline how to work effectively with independent physicians; why both clinical and financial context matters when making supply chain decisions; and the importance of clinical pathways.

Select the Right Clinician(s)

Firstly, when selecting clinicians to join the supply chain decision-making process, it is critical to add the right voice. From my experience, I believe the right clinical leader to integrate into supply chain management is someone who:

• Is practising
• Can translate the language of Supply Chain back to the medical staff
• Has a communication style that enables open dialogue
• Can translate the differing alignment or incentives from both sides of the equation

And, of course, the right clinician for the role must believe in the organization’s mission and really believe in the power of the supply chain to provide clinical value.

A dyad leadership structure between physicians and administrators is an ideal model to foster progress.

Work with Independent Physicians

For the first time in history, a slight majority of physicians are now employed rather than independent. This signals a significant change in the relationships between physicians and their hospitals. It may have a positive impact by aligning the goals of entire enterprises because when physicians join a labor pool, they presumably align with the goals of the organization — including financial viability.

Signalling a true partnership can be as simple as scheduling a meeting when it better suits a clinical or operating room schedule.

Independent physicians, at their core, recognize that they’re in a symbiotic relationship with the entities with which they work. Therefore, the most important part of working with them is to be open with data and welcome their partnership in achieving the organization’s strategic goals. Hospital systems should bring independent physicians into the supply chain decision-making early in their relationship and be respectful of their clinical opinion. Signalling a true partnership can be as simple as scheduling a meeting when it better suits a clinical or operating room schedule.

If supply chain and physician leaders agree at the outset that patients are at the center of care, then it is a small step to agree that evidence-based principles should guide their decision-making. When choices are not obvious, focus on items that bring the most value to patient care as defined by outcomes/cost. Once data is presented, there should be both an organizational and individual physician commitment to say, “This is the best evidence we have today. This is how we’re going to move forward.” In my experience, when goals are aligned and information is readily shared, traditional sales tactics influencing product preference are sharply mitigated.

Provide Context to Physicians

Context is very important for supply chain decision making. As such, organizations should be transparent regarding what relationships drive their supply chain decision-making. For example, if they’re using a group purchasing organization, they should explain the nature of those relationships to physicians. Physicians understand economies of scale, price sensitivity, and market trends. Most physicians I’ve worked with genuinely want to play a role in finding solutions — but they need the facts first.

When physicians join a labor pool, they presumably align with the goals of the organization — including financial viability.

When under stress, hospital organizations often react by cutting labor services and supply chain costs. But with supply chain and physician partnerships, services can be achieved through the elimination of waste and streamlining best evidence protocols, as we’ll see next.

Leverage the Power of Clinical Pathways

Clinical pathways can bring evidence-based medicine into the clinical decision-making process and eliminate individual, unwarranted clinical variation. This approach similarly works well in the supply chain. For example, we have already created clinical pathways around things like diabetic foot ulcers to eliminate individual, unwarranted variation in the treatment. So it’s not a very big stretch for us to then add onto that the certain product categories that would be useful within each particular step. While clinical pathways 1.0 may have focused purely on clinical decision-making, the 2.0 version can include product categories that would be supportive of those clinical decisions in a cost-effective, outcomes-based way.

In conclusion, a practicing physician can bring a broader context to supply chain discussions. This approach promotes an alignment of goals and helps to communicate management decisions to other physicians. It balances financial metrics and clinical justifications. Adding a seat at the supply chain table for a practising clinician can bring both fiscal and patient care benefits. Can a healthcare organization really afford not to include physicians in the supply chain process?

This is the second article in my series on Supply Chain management. See my previous article “Physician Collaboration: A Key to Effective Supply Chain Management.”